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Unusual Hobbies (other than Roadgeekery)

Started by vtk, August 03, 2012, 09:45:07 PM

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vtk

I'm also into:
* Computer programming (often as an artistic tool)
* Nudism
Wait, it's all Ohio? Always has been.


US71

Well, collecting comics or matchbook covers is not that unusual.  I do, however, like to watch friends beat each other with sticks ;)
Like Alice I Try To Believe Three Impossible Things Before Breakfast

vtk

Is that a college campus or a highway rest area?
Wait, it's all Ohio? Always has been.

US71

Like Alice I Try To Believe Three Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Takumi

I collect music, mostly CDs but the occasional vinyl 12" as well. While that seems like a perfectly reasonable hobby, keep in mind I'm from the generation of "lol paying for music". (And that's all I'm going to say about that can of worms. :poke:)

I also enjoy driving my car around randomly, but I guess that can be considered part of roadgeeking if I find something interesting or take photos/video.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

Alps

* coin collecting
* collecting of random other things (rocks, shells, magazines, model cars)

huskeroadgeek

I've always had an interest in radio and television broadcasting, and the internet allows me to indulge that interest in ways I never would have been able to before. One thing I like to do is read the Wikipedia pages on TV stations, and then watch clips of the stations on Youtube. I particularly like watching clips of old newscasts.

formulanone

#7
Quote from: Steve on August 04, 2012, 01:57:59 AM
* coin collecting

Same here, although I'm less involved with it in the past decade or so, except for the state quarters. In a few years, I'll hand down some stuff to my kids (it will be very hard for them to spend foreign currency, although I used to give/trade samples to my friends as a kid.)

Quote from: Takumi on August 03, 2012, 10:28:16 PM
I collect music, mostly CDs but the occasional vinyl 12" as well. While that seems like a perfectly reasonable hobby...

About 75% of my music is still the hard-CD-based stuff. The rest comes from iTunes or Amazon. Despite so much travel, I prefer the disks as "backup", and get more pleasure out of opening it, reading the booklet inside (if there's anything to say or look at); even if nowadays, it just goes right into the car's CD player 2 minutes later.

* Auto industry stuff. (Part of the job, too.)
* Motorsports, particularly F1 racing (grandprixgeekery?).
* Moderating a video game/motorsport/automotive website.
* Brushing up on my Japanese...sort of. Can still recognize the meaning of about 500 kanji, down from roughly 1900 or so from when I was in college.

mgk920

I also like following the comings and goings of the railroad industry ('railfanning'), although not as much nowadays as when I was younger.  I'm also mildly into coins, antique radios and several newspaper comic strips ('Prince Valiant' has always been a favorite of mine).

Many of us roadgeeks share other personality traits, too, but that is for a different thread.

Mike

Takumi

Quote from: formulanone on August 04, 2012, 05:20:03 AM
About 75% of my music is still the hard-CD-based stuff. The rest comes from iTunes or Amazon. Despite so much travel, I prefer the disks as "backup", and get more pleasure out of opening it, reading the booklet inside (if there's anything to say or look at); even if nowadays, it just goes right into the car's CD player 2 minutes later.

That sums up my collecting experience as well. It's more satisfying to have something there, especially when you can go buy it at the store, and it can serve as back if you have a computer failure (which did happen to me once). I will buy digital releases of singles, unless the vinyl edition is unique (for example, a recent single was released on white vinyl, and the B-side was exclusive to that, so I had it imported from the UK). I also find the occasional signed or promo version of a CD. Having said that, I normally listen to it in my car once or twice, then rip it to my computer so I can listen to it on my MP3 player in the future. Sometimes I'll break the CD back out for a road trip, though.

Quote
* Motorsports

Same, although I don't necessarily have a preference for a particular series. I'll watch anything on a circuit track. F1, NASCAR, IndyCar, MotoGP, World Superbike, V8 Supercars, you name it.

Quote
* Brushing up on my Japanese...sort of. Can still recognize the meaning of about 500 kanji, down from roughly 1900 or so from when I was in college.

I never really made it past hiragana in college, although I never had a formal Japanese class.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

Ian

As most of you know, I also have a large interest in traffic signals. I love taking photos of them, talking about them, and even collecting them (I have about 4 in my collection, and a few I want to sell). Other than that, I have a huge passion for photography, as well as drawing, driving, and playing Xbox.  :nod:
UMaine graduate, former PennDOT employee, new SoCal resident.
Youtube l Flickr

Duke87

Baseball card collecting, although I wouldn't call that "unusual" per se. People know what it is, I don't have to explain it to them (unlike roadgeekery) - although, some people think it's weird for someone my age to be doing it. There's a perception out there (among women, anyway, I've never had a man say this to me) that it's a kiddie hobby and that I should grow up and give it up. The reality is that these days kids aren't really collecting baseball cards anymore (they collect Pokemon and other gaming cards instead) and most baseball card collectors are middle aged to older men. If anything, I'm unusually young to be into it, not old!
If you always take the same road, you will never see anything new.

vtk

Quote from: Takumi on August 03, 2012, 10:28:16 PM
I collect music, mostly CDs

I have a rather large music collection, mostly ripped from CDs borrowed from the public library.  What I think is a little less common about my music collection is the way I compile playlists, usually for a specific sound, emotion, or context.  Most folks I know with large music collections just tell their media player to play an artist, or play an album, or shuffle everything...
Wait, it's all Ohio? Always has been.

Roadgeek Adam

Most railfans usually go nuts over equipment. However, unlike others, my preference is the station depots, and as a result, I do a lot of research into station history, their evolution of communities. My photography in railroads is of depots, their sites, etc. (I am not afraid to photograph a patch of dirt if it means I have this station recorded.)

This has gained me quite the opportunities to help with fundraising (the Leiters Station in Leiters Ford IN being my hardest work fundraising campaign, yet I've never been to Indiana). Slowly I am compiling details for all Erie stations, hope to write my own book someday (or series.)
Adam Seth Moss
M.A. History, Western Illinois University 2015-17
B.A. History, Montclair State University 2013-15
A.A. History & Education - Middlesex (County) College 2009-13

Takumi

Quote from: vtk on August 04, 2012, 06:42:40 PM
What I think is a little less common about my music collection is the way I compile playlists, usually for a specific sound, emotion, or context.  Most folks I know with large music collections just tell their media player to play an artist, or play an album, or shuffle everything...

A lot of times when I have playlists that are all electronic music, I put the songs as I imagine they would be in a DJ mix, so it flows better. Had I any real mixing skill, I'd do that as well in those cases.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

Sanctimoniously

Mine are:

1. Socks. I have about 175 pairs of socks in all imaginable colors.
2. Converse. I have twelve pairs of them. I could have more, but I don't really have the space.
3. Taking pictures of socks and Converse. It could be said that I'm better at taking pictures of those things than I am taking pictures of road-related things.
4. The Weather Channel. My television is almost permanently tuned to The Weather Channel, and I enjoy watching old WeatherSTAR and IntelliSTAR (and Weatherscan) clips on YouTube.
5. Writing. Car and Driver magazine is one of my biggest inspirations as a writer, and it's still my ambition to write for that magazine one day.
6. Cars. Particularly Buicks, and I mean all Buicks, from the big and ostentatious models of the 1960s and 1970s, to the drag-strip burners of the 1980s, to the Wednesday-night bingo fixtures of the 1990s, to the stylish models of today. I also like cool and eclectic cars such as the Ford Flex, trucks, diesel-engined cars, station wagons, and near-supercar cars such as the Corvette ZR1 and the Nissan GT-R.
7. Star Trek. Live long and prosper.

I couldn't say that any of my interests are particularly normal.
Quote from: Scott5114 on December 22, 2013, 06:27:29 AM
[tt]wow                 very cringe
        such clearview          must photo
much clinch      so misalign         wow[/tt]

See it. Live it. Love it. Verdana.

route56

#16
Unusual hobbies, eh....

I am (and always will be) a railfan, so much so that somehow I was given the keys to the local Amtrak station - literally... I occasionally volunteer to greet the train (usually on Saturdays)

I also dabble in writing and illustrating Star Trek Fan-Fiction... part who I know, part concepts in my head, part references to other shows I watch or have watched (Doctor Who, Heroes, and JAG in particular.... haven't had a chance to drop in something from NCIS yet)

My illustrations mostly come in the form of 3D renderings using Blender. There are quite a few trek-themed 3D meshes out there to do starship renderings.



Then there's my cast of characters... I purchased a older version of Poser to pose the characters and establish facial expressions... then I export them to Blender for final rendering.



EDIT! 1/17/17 - corrected stale image links
Peace to you, and... don't drive like my brother.

R.P.K.

on_wisconsin

Besides the internet and roadgeeky things...

  • Watching sports
  • Going to da bar
  • Playing Sim City, Civ 4, and other simulation games
  • Watching cable news
  • Attending large outdoor gatherings (brat fest, fairs, etc)
  • Ordering ridiculous amounts of fast food (usually drunk but not always)
  • Reading monthly (Madison) transit commission minutes/ reports
  • Hanging out around the city
"Speed does not kill, suddenly becoming stationary... that's what gets you" - Jeremy Clarkson

J N Winkler

My own hobbies are fairly mundane compared to some others have described.

*  To stay fit, I work with weights at the gym and try to take a long walk every day.  I walk more for the psychological benefits, which have been linked to moving forward under tree canopy, than for the exercise.

*  I cook, both for nutrition and mood stabilization.  I lean Italian and light, though I also like Spanish and Mexican, and I love garlic.

*  I like to travel and experiment with hand-held available-light photography.

*  I program in NT batch.  (It is more for survival than anything else--I am not skilled by any means, but generally obtain very considerable savings in time and annoyance from the modest abilities I do have.)

*  I am a TV completist:  when I find a TV series I like, I generally watch it from pilot to season finale, typically long after initial broadcast.

*  I like crime thrillers and science fiction, and indulge in completism for some authors.  I have almost finished Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles novels, and have been finishing up Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, and James Lee Burke.
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini

huskeroadgeek

Quote from: Sanctimoniously on August 04, 2012, 10:41:14 PM

4. The Weather Channel. My television is almost permanently tuned to The Weather Channel, and I enjoy watching old WeatherSTAR and IntelliSTAR (and Weatherscan) clips on YouTube.

I like watching old Weather Channel clips too. I love the music they play(or used to play now since they've gone to regular pop music) on the local forecasts. I even call such music "Weather Channel music" even if I hear it in another setting. I especially like listening to playlists from the 90s-when I was in college, TWC was usually what I had on TV late at night while I was studying or writing papers. So listening to songs from the playlists of that era brings back memories for me.

Takumi

Quote from: Sanctimoniously on August 04, 2012, 10:41:14 PM
6. Cars. Particularly Buicks, and I mean all Buicks, from the big and ostentatious models of the 1960s and 1970s, to the drag-strip burners of the 1980s, to the Wednesday-night bingo fixtures of the 1990s, to the stylish models of today. I also like cool and eclectic cars such as the Ford Flex, trucks, diesel-engined cars, station wagons, and near-supercar cars such as the Corvette ZR1 and the Nissan GT-R.
I'm also into cars, but as some of you know, I'm biased towards sporty Hondas (including Acuras) like the S2000, Prelude, NSX, Civic Si, and anything Type-R or Type-S. For other car makes I have a general knowledge of makes and models, but I lack a lot of specifics, especially with European marques.

A former hobby of mine was playing arcade games. In my late high school and college years I often visited now-defunct local arcades. One of my favorite games, despite being bad at it, was Initial D, where I got my nickname (the story's protagonist is named Takumi, so it's kind of an ironic nickname).
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

Alex

#21
Quote from: huskeroadgeek on August 05, 2012, 02:07:47 AM
Quote from: Sanctimoniously on August 04, 2012, 10:41:14 PM

4. The Weather Channel. My television is almost permanently tuned to The Weather Channel, and I enjoy watching old WeatherSTAR and IntelliSTAR (and Weatherscan) clips on YouTube.

I like watching old Weather Channel clips too. I love the music they play(or used to play now since they've gone to regular pop music) on the local forecasts. I even call such music "Weather Channel music" even if I hear it in another setting. I especially like listening to playlists from the 90s-when I was in college, TWC was usually what I had on TV late at night while I was studying or writing papers. So listening to songs from the playlists of that era brings back memories for me.

I was a huge TWC fan from when I first discovered it in 1986 until the changes made the channel Weather Entertainment. I avidly recorded TWC from 1989 until 2002 and recently sent all 30 plus VHS tapes from that era to a friend of a friend to have them DVD'ized. I have the 1989 to early 1994 stuff on DVD now and can relive the weather, OCM's, music whenever I want. Like others, TWC was my defacto channel of choice for late at night or when nothing else worth watching.

Used to also go stormchasing with fellow road guy Cary and a couple of non road friends. Now I just complain about the weather more than anything. Watching TWC obsessively and stormchasing were considered unusual during their time.

realjd

My hobbies
* Outdoor activities - hiking, kayaking, geocaching, organized orienteering events, and I'm going to teach myself to surf this fall
* Traveling (air travel geekery and air/hotel status/points included - I'm active on flyertalk)
* Photography
* Firearms (target shooting at the range)
* Beer and home brewing (I'm about to start brewing an Octoberfest)
* TV shows
* Watching soccer and football, specifically college football (Purdue, UCF) and the Premier League (Arsenal)

While not really a hobby, I do follow a few weather blogs, especially the tropics this time of year.

I used to be into computers when I was younger, but doing it for a living now, I have little interest in tinkering or programming after work anymore.

english si

Railway networks - much rarer than signalling or train geekery. How it all fits together, fantasy plans both low key and fairly crazy (but not interstate to Yellowstone crazy) - mostly in the London area.* This extends to the more niche area of transit map design including the psychological effects certain features bring.

Other odd hobbies include reading books written a long time ago and walking places.

*I have been totally surprised by some quarters' almost-phobic dislike of discussion of non-official plans, even if on-topic, small tweaks and a brief aside in a fairly long on-topic post - one forum (with apparent widespread backing) deleted a couple of fairly long on-topic posts because in them was a snippet of fantasy: "(this problem wouldn't exist if I had my way and extended line X to Y)" "via where?". Needless to say, not been back since then, nor have about 5 people of the then-posting membership of about 30.

pianocello

I like watching college football and basketball, and I'm also a classical music nerd.
Davenport, IA -> Valparaiso, IN -> Ames, IA -> Orlando, FL -> Gainesville, FL -> Evansville, IN



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